Archaeology Magazine - March 1964 - 57

ARCHAEOLOGICAL
Obituaries
We report with regret the deaths
of the following scholars in archaeologyand related fields:
Renato Bartoccini, Curator of
the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome,
well known archaeologistwho had
excavated at Leptis Magna and at
Vulci and Feronia, died October 9,
1963, at the age of 70;
Frederick E. Zeuner, Professor
of Environmental Archaeology at
the University of London, well
known for his geochronological
studies, notably The PleistocenePeriod and Dating the Past, died November 5, 1963,at the age of 58;
Margaret Murray, noted Egyptologist, who devoted her long life
to the study of archaeology and
had excavated in Egypt and other
Mediterranean areas, died November 13, 1963, at the age of 100,
shortly after publishing her autobiography, My First Hundred Years;
Sir Alan Gardiner, President of
the Egypt Exploration Society, one
of the world's outstanding authorities on the ancient Egyptian language and the author of more than
two dozen books on Egypt, died
December19, 1963,at the age of 84.
AIA General Meeting, 1963
The attendanceat the jointly held
General Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and
the Annual Meeting of the American PhilologicalAssociation,which
took place December28-30, 1963 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was extraordinarily good, with total registration about 650. The Council
meeting on the first morning duly
disposed of Institute business, and
the first session for reading papers
took place in the afternoon. The
first paper, on the battle of Pylos
and Sphacteria,was by W. K. Pritchett, who presented geological and
archaeological evidence that the

NEWS
sandbar in the Bay of Navarino
existed in the time of Thucydides,
which affects the interpretation of
his accountof the battle. Donald W.
Bradeen tentatively reconstructed
the funeral monument for Athenians killed in 446 b.c., mainly at
the battle of Koroneia, from an
analysis of markings on the base
and the identificationof four fragments of the casualty lists contained
in five contiguous stelae set on the
base. A report of progress was
made by Helen von Raits on studies
being made preparatory to the publication of 400 fragments of pinakes
found at Penteskouphia in 1905,
which come from the same site as
a larger group of fragments found
in 1879,now in the Berlin Museum,
many of which are shown to join
fragments at Corinth or to have
similar scenes. The results of two
brief seasons of excavation of a
sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on
the north slope of Acrocorinthwere
described by Ronald Stroud. This
sanctuary, mentioned by Pausanias,
has so far yielded large quantities
of pottery and several deposits of
terracotta figurines. Evidence was
offered by Brunilde SismondoRidgway for identifying the central figure of the east pediment of the
Siphnian treasury as Zeus instead
of Athena. T. Leslie Shear, Jr. suggested that the sixth-century Telesterion at Eleusis, supposedly destroyed by the Persians in 480 b.c.,
was systematicallydemolished,since
many parts of the superstructure
were laid aside for reuse in its
successor, the Kimonian Telesterion. The best explanation is that
the new temple was begun before
the Persian wars but its construction ended with the invasion. In his
discussionof beveledjoints in Greek
architecture, A. Trevor Hodge
pointed out that he had observed
bevels on many buildings and could
only conclude that they were not
intended to prevent chipping, as
suggested by their appearance in

the unfinished surfaces of the Propylaia, but to provide a datum line
from which measurementscould be
taken during construction. Lucy T.
Shoe provided exciting evidencefor
the Stoa Poikile in the Athenian
Agora from fragments of a pier
capital of about 460 b.c., as well as
other elements from the building to
which it belonged, some with well
preserved color. These were found
in a wall of the fifth century a.D.
which ran in front of the Stoa of
Attalos.
As is customary, the president of
the APA gave his presidential address to a joint session of the two
societieson the first evening. In an
illustrated talk Howard Comfort
provided an interestingsummary of
the present state of studies on terra
sigillata in western Europe.
The second session took place on
Sunday morning. Phyllis Williams
Lehmann summarized the history
of the Hieron at Samothrace, describing its liturgically determined
groundplan and the various reconstructions which it underwent. Iris
Love suggested Lemnos and Samothrace as possible places of origin for kantharos-like cups found
on these islands and elsewhere in
northeastern Greecewhich she identified with the karchesion described
by Athenaeus. Dorothy K. Hill discussed a group of Etruscan bronze
situlae characterized by a vertical
handle in the form of a standing
figure in addition to the usual
swinging handle, and an extraordinary sort of spout. The similarity
of details and consistent sculptural
style suggest that several were the
product of a single Etruscan factory
and the rest from nearby areas.
Peter H. von Blanckenhagen reported on the results of the excavation of two Roman Republican
villas. One is a luxurious country
house built in two phases with later
additions, and the other is a villa
rustica, which also went through
several developments; both should
57

Archaeology Magazine - March 1964

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